Saturday, September 10, 2011

The Chase... Elimination needed in Playoffs

Okay. I have to admit… I’m one of those guys that REALLY gets sick and tired of all the analysts in NCAA Football who’ve come up with the “perfect” solution to the BCS System. The implication being that the BCS System is flawed and these yahoos—of varied degrees of intelligence—are going to fix the whole thing.

It’s comical, unrealistic, and downright dense at its core. It simply never ends.

The biggest premise is that most NCAA Football fanatics just want a playoff style system built into College Football. They are SCREAMING for it.

Well, you have to hand it to the France Family. If there is one thing they have always seemed to realize, it is simply this—NASCAR needs its fans happy. It seems to me that NASCAR has always focused more on the fans over the sport’s own players. The scales may be close, but I would say it tips more so in the fan’s direction than that of the drivers and crews.

To that end, Brian France implemented The Chase for the Championship. Just seeing it in print it looks pretty damn cool. The format is designed to give us our sport’s version of a playoff system. I think the idea and concept of the chase has now been with us long enough to solidify the concept for NASCAR fans as a major factor of the sport. Not only that, but if Jeff Gordon were to win the chase this year, I think the last of the “I liked the old Cup version better” voices would fade away completely. After all, Gordon’s four previous Cups came under the old NASCAR points system. His winning this Cup silences the argument.

If there is anything we should realize about this points system, it is that it’s always evolving. In an effort to find the right television ratings balance for the chase’s impact, Brian France has continuously made tweaks to the system. Each year we start in Daytona with Darrell, Larry Mac, and Mike Joy explaining to us the changes which were brought about by NASCAR to the points system in the off-season.

And I have to say, I think this year they hit the right changes and have made the chase a relevant and prevalent presence the entire season. The impact of two wild card spots and the significance of a win related to these two spots has been a running theme all year long. Good Job NASCAR.

But the 10 billion dollar elephant in the room is not the fans; it’s the National Football League. I would guess it’s just my cynicism, but I look at the overall picture and think to myself, “Self” (much as Garth Brooks, that’s what I call myself in my mind) I say, “Self, what’s NASCAR’s biggest problem this time of year?” And of course the answer is the N. F. L. Period. NASCAR, every year, has an immediate impact slammed into their collective ratings face; football season starts.

So, to me, it seems that part of the reason for implementing the chase was to combat ratings that take a nose dive every September and to some degree I think it has worked, but maybe not as well as some might have hoped. Has this increased the ratings by focusing more attention on a handful of drivers in the chase scenario? Sure, but perhaps it’s not enough. Football still dominates. It may very well ALWAYS dominate, but that does not mean things can’t be improved.

I think Brian France got it right—the idea of the chase is to raise interest in what will happen, to turn up the intensity dial a notch and make an end season impact. And Brian France has also shown he is willing to make the adjustments to the system to get it right. But NASCAR needs to take the next logical step. Every other sport that has a playoff system has an elimination feature built into their playoffs. All of them, that is, except NASCAR.

We identify our playoff contenders then go back to a tired scenario—run races and gain points. But there’s no real consequence other than if you win you get more points. There is a sense of urgency built into the system and there’s no do or die implications other than a DNF having hard impact.

Where’s our elimination? Don’t we need that for it to be a true playoff?

You want to turn our last few races of the year into a really big deal? Give us Superbowl contenders. Start eliminating drivers in the chase. PERIOD.

There are—under the current incarnation of the chase—twelve drivers for ten races. I say you turn this thing on its head and start eliminating drivers every two races.

It works like this…

- After the first two chase races, drivers in position 11 & 12 are eliminated from chase contention.
- After the 3rd & 4th chase races, drivers in position 10 & 9 are eliminated from chase contention.
- After the 5th & 6th chase races, drivers in position 8 & 7 are eliminated from chase contention.

And the kicker…

- After the 7th chase race, a SINGLE RACE ELIMINATION occurs. The drivers in position 6 & 5 are eliminated from chase contention
- The remaining four drivers determine the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship in the final three races.


I think the implications of this will have many outcomes, most of which will be some damn hard racing by drivers who’ve already been given a NASCAR mandate of boys have at it. Admittedly, I am only one voice in an ocean of voices. However, I think this is the final and perhaps best tweak that can be made to our chase. I think we need this to propel the end of the season to where it has always belonged—at the focal point of the sporting world.


-Name withheld, no kitchen pass issued.

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